This report is an excerpt from Packaged Facts’ comprehensive Top Global Food and Beverage Companies: Strategies for Success report, which studies eight leading global food and beverage companies, exploring the strategies that have made their brands international and the pressures they confront today and in the future to retain their leadership status. The companies were chosen as leading manufacturers and marketers of food and beverage brands, with a strong heritage in the industry. All have international operations and a broad set of customers spanning three or more geographic regions.

The companies that were placed under the microscope are: Nestlé, Kellogg, Anheuser-Busch, Wrigley, Kraft, Heinz, Danone and Coca-Cola.

The information in Top Global Food and Beverage Companies: Strategies for Success is based on primary and secondary research. Secondary research entailed data gathering from relevant sources, including industry and association publications, trade press, company literature and corporate annual reports. Primary research consists of a series of in-depth interviews with brand experts, associations and consultants to the CPG industry, in order to more closely understand the challenges brands face.

Market Insights: A Selection From The Report

Trend 3: Supply side issues

Global food production has become a high profile issue in the past due to a series of inter-related factors that have combined to put strain on agriculture and the food industry. Analysts across the world have referred to the shift as a major ‘global food crisis’.
Rising energy (oil) prices have played a major role in driving up the costs of food production at all levels from agriculture, manufacturing to distribution. Meanwhile, the world population is expanding in developing markets and growing demand for...

Trend 6: Convenience

Convenience is one of the most significant mega trends impacting CPGs this century. The need for more convenient food and drinks products has paved the way for a plethora of new product development and innovation. Today, it remains one of the main issues facing CPG manufacturers. Convenience products play to the demands of consumers’ needs for food and drink products that bring simplicity and ease in shopping for, preparing, cooking and consuming. Enhancing value via convenience has been one of the most traditional ways in which CPGs have encouraged consumers toward...

New York, January 7, 2009 - Global branding in the food and beverage industry has never been more challenging. Yet for select leading global companies, the often volatile international marketplace is populated with more opportunities than pitfalls. According to market research publisher Packaged Facts’ all-new report, Top Global Food and Beverage Companies: Strategies for Success, there are eight companies who exemplify the ideal model for success: Nestlé, Kellogg, Anheuser-Busch, Wrigley, Kraft, Heinz, Danone and Coca-Cola.

It’s no coincidence that these elite eight are among the most recognizable company names in the world. Each manages a portfolio of brands that are consumed across multiple international markets, and most have heritages going back over a century.

Their reputations for achieving longevity through innovation and ingenuity have proven advantageous in their bids to flourish amidst the major trends that are challenging and changing the food and beverage industry in the 21st Century.

“The foremost similarity among all eight companies is their commitment to innovation, to create products that meet the changing needs of consumers,” says Tatjana Meerman, publisher of Packaged Facts. “Innovation is a critical part of their strategies to win over new consumers, protect and bolster their competitive advantage and hence drive long-term financial gains.”

For example, many companies employ strategies to allay the mounting pressure they face to be accountable for and help promote healthier lifestyles. These include moving nutritional guidelines to the front of packs to enable consumers to make better informed decisions, producing smaller packs to supply consumers with snack solutions that can be used as part of calorie-controlled diets, and providing products that are nutritionally balanced or have added nutritional benefits.

Top Global Food and Beverage Companies: Strategies for Success contains a unique mix of consumer, market and industry insight with international scope. The report provides in-depth insight into the global marketing strategies of the aforementioned eight prestigious global food and beverage companies, examining how they’ve become successful, what they’re doing to evolve their business in the current climate and future challenges ahead.